most impressive attempts to present Judean culture in terms understand-
able and attractive to those reared in the Greco-Roman tradition. Com-
paring Moses’s constitution favorably with both the Athenian and the
Spartan systems, Josephus indicates how Judean culture outclasses all its
rivals, and why it attracts imitation by both philosophers and the ordinary
“masses.” Finally, the specifically Roman accents of this treatise, in its po-
litical stance and its adoption of Romanized values, suggests a partial trend
toward the “Romanization” of Judean tradition, at least as envisaged by
this articulate and culturally sensitive Roman citizen from Judea.Josephus’s Reception and Interpretation
In the ancient world members of the elite classes were educated to write in
all genres, but always under the assumptions and principles of rhetoric
(the art and science of convincing audiences). History was the statesman’s
genre par excellence: there he exercised his moral authority to expose the
admirable and the execrable, to describe intractable problems and solu-
tions, and to narrate catastrophes to be avoided in the future. Historians
were valued not because of any independent verification of their accuracy,
which was generally impossible, but because they were effective in convey-
ing — by some combination of personal prestige, quality of writing, and
moralappropriateness—acompelling account of human motives, foibles,
and virtues.
In such a competitive context for the status of moral arbiter, it was
natural that one author would typically win out and become “the author-
ity” for his period. We know of several others who wrote histories overlap-
ping with Josephus’s, two by name (Nicolaus of Damascus and Justus of
Tiberias) and unnamed Greeks and Romans who treated the Judean war
before him (cf.J.W.1.1-8). But whereas all of those are lost to us (except in
those places where Nicolaus’s 144-volume history overlapped with Jose-
phus’s history), Josephus’s thirty volumes have reached us intact. At some
point he became the exclusive authority for Judean history and geography
from King Herod to the end of the Judean-Roman war in 73c.e.Photius
apparently still had access to Justus’s writings, but he favored Josephus
against Justus, even parroting Josephus’s dismissal of his rival, and Justus’s
works did not survive much longer. The die had been cast long before.
How did this happen? The initial boost provided by the regime’s en-
dorsement of Josephus’sWa rseems to have brought him to the attention313JosephusEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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